..:: ZOMBiE Destinee ::..

Friday, April 28, 2006
GP Act Sei
[ZOMBiE CyGiG] ranted at 8:42 PM --- Post#114623327347922816

Seriously, i neber understand the reason for studying General Paper lor. In fact its one of the most hated subject on the student's black list lah. It does not contribute much to the score in A levels, yet you MUST pass in order to go uni. Wah kao, why liddat one....

If im not wrong, one of GP's aim is to develop thinking skills and how we express ourselves!

Ok today, i compare for you to see Blogging VS General Paper! Hahahahaha! I find blogging a muchi better way to "develop thinking skills" and "express ourselves"!

When a student does GP, most likely he is being pressured and force to do so! (all JC students have to go through it! Why Poly no need???). Just becos he wants to come JC, he MUST take GP. Sounds a bit unreasonable sia. Then why Poly student why no need nia? I tot its supposed to be a life skill?

I can really assume most of the sudents when given a chance will NOT take GP. Cos they dun like it! Whats the use of forcing smthing down the students' throat nia??? Teacher say "do newspaper cutting", then we do lor. Teacher say "memorise this!", then we memorise lor. Teacher say "Must use this structure!", then we use lor.

This is like totally different from blogging lah! When we blog, we do it OUR style, we do it OUR way, we do it OURSELVES! Look at the number of students having blogs. A lot de lor, inside got a lot of REAL opinions that we REALLY FEEL. Unlike GP essay where the stand is more or less standard one de.

In a GP essay, there is this fixed structure, fixed way of argument, fixed way of presenting your point...blah blah blah...According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

*essay*:

Noun
1. (*s'*') a. A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author.

Ya, its sooooooo PERSONAL hor...so personal until we have to stick so close to everything. A lot of teachers tell the students to memorise facts, learn the structure that the examiners like and all those stuff. Plus a lot of students dun really favour GP liao. It ended up being something that is "faked up" by the students lor.

U see ppl blog, got what say what. No fixed format. Ok lah, you may say we write in Singlish no one understand, that one might be a problem lah. But overall, a lot of blogs are not that foreign-unreadable mah. Furthermore, the targets of blogs are at local ppl. When im posting in foreign forums, i will use standard english one! Like in http://iaudio.com, iAudio's webby, i used simple and good enlglish to talk to those foreigners, they understood me perfectly. Also, a lot of them have their own style of writing as well, like american slang or french accent, some cant even write in English well. But overall, we are still able to communicate!

Talk about forums, GP essay is dead. Its written in ink and paper then handed in. But when we post in blogs, we get feedback and opinions from other ppl. At times i will link some posts to forums like SPUG.net. Then ppl can come and discuss in the fourms or through the Comments function most web log engine offers. Isnt this a lot more interactive?

Doing all these online also reduces the problem of "cannot assume the reader knows". In a GP essay, we gotta explain EVERYTHING. A lot are really redundant, we write them for the sake of "showing off we do know facts". We gotta give details on a lot of examples. Say we mention about views on certain environmental issues, we needa memorise all the facts in the GP essay. But when we blog, we have the internet, we can simply do a link to Wikipedia! Easy as that! Readers whom already know about, maybe the Kyoto Protocol, need not re read stuffs that he already know, while the rest can click on the link to get far more details than we can memorise in a GP essay!

Lastly, things get more interesting when there is some entertaining value in it. Who will actually read a GP essay other than for examination sake? I haven read one essay that is really interesting de lor. Same perfect and formal english. Compare this to Rockson's blog! All the vugalrities and feeling and cock brings his point out much much muchi more effectively sia!

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